Guy guard



A ril 10, 1934. c. 1.. MATTHEWS GUY GUARD Filed May 6, 1931 Patented Apr. 10, 1934 UNITED STATES GUY GUARD Claud L. Matthews, St.

Louis, Mo., assignor to W. N. Matthews Corporation, St. Louis, Mo., a

corporation of Missouri Application May 6, 1931, Serial No. 535,319

2 Claims.

This invention relates to guards, and with regard to certain more specific features, to guards for guy strand and the like.

This application is in part a continuation of United States patent application of Claud L. Matthews et al., Serial No. 502,342, filed December 15, 1930, now Patent No. 1,805,251, dated May 12, 1931.

Among the several objects of the invention may be noted the provision of a guard which prevents injury to that which might otherwise come in contact with guy strand and be injured if the guard were not used; the provision of a device of the class described which is formed in one piece, and which is non-rotatable about the strand and is tightly held thereto; the provision of a device of this class which may be secured to the strand by one bolting operation without the necessity of first engaging certain parts of the guard with the strand while said guard is held at an angle to the strand; and, the provision of a device of the class described which is economical and easy to manufacture. Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed out hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises the elements and combinations of elements, features of construction, and arrangements of parts which will be exemplified in the structure hereinafter described, and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the following claims.

In the accompanying drawing, in which is illustrated several of various possible embodiments of the invention,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a form of the guard installed on a guy strand;

Fig. 2 is a bottom plan view of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a cross section taken on line 3-3of Fig. 4;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary top plan view of the guard shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 4 but showing a modification of the invention;

Fig. 6 is a cross section taken on line 6-6 of Fig. 5; and,

Fig. '7 is a fragmentary side elevation showing a modification of one end of the guard.

Similar reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawing.

Guy strand used to guy poles or the like to ground anchors and the like forms a source of danger to persons, animals or objects moving about near it and accordingly should be shielded.

' The purpose is to make the presence of the guy wire or strand known to persons to prevent tripping and to prevent the catching or tearing of such things as may come into contact with the fastenings associated with the attachments between the strand and anchor rod or the like. It is difficult to shield these guys because, due to their small diameter, difficulty arises in clamping the shields to them. The shields so clamped are usually either so loose that they slideor twist out of position, rattle, and in general are unsatisfactory, or so involved that their manufacturing expense and freight rates for delivery are excessive. The present invention overcomes these difficulties and provides a guy guard which is formed in one piece, is easily manufactured, shipped and installed, and substantially immovably fastened to the guy strand or wire or the like.

Referring now more particularly to Figs. 1 and 2, there is shown at numeral 1 a guy strand passed through an eye 35 of a guy rod 3 and fastened by means of a guy clamp 5 and wire 33. Such a guy strand 1 is used for various guying purposes, as for instance, securing poles. The clamp 5 is a three-bolt clamp, (but other numbers may be used), and as is shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the guy clamp 5 comprises a base portion 9, and a cap portion 11 adapted to be clamped down on the base portion 9 by means of bolts 13, 15 and 16. The bolt 16 is applied to the clamp 5 after the guy strand 1 is clamped in its final taut position by the other bolts 13 and 15. The bolt 16 is finally applied to bolt a guy guard 17 in position as will be further explained hereinafter. It is to be understood, however, that the guard 17 may be bolted to the clamp 5 by either of the bolts 13 or 15 if so desired. Thus the modification in Fig. '7 shows a modified form of the eye 19 and shows the eye bolted by the bolt 15.

At numeral 17 is shown the guard installed on the guy strand 1. The guard 17 is preferably, though not necessarily, formed from sheet metal such as galvanized iron or the like, and comprises a trough-shaped body portion 18, and an eye 19 at one end. The trough-shaped body portion 18 is nestable and may be of any shape such as parabolic, triangular, rectangular, or the like and may be of any convenient area. In the present invention it is in the form of a trough. The eye 19 is adapted to be slipped over and fastened to the bolt 16 by a nut 20 after the clamp 5 is in its clamped position. The nestable feature is of importance. With the present invention it is possible to save in excess of twothirds of the volume otherwise consumed in a given weight in shipment. Thus the present device takes third class freight rate, instead of second class.

At the end of the body portion 18 opposite the eye 19, juxtapositioned clips 21 are extended from the top of the arch of the body portion 18. They may be attached in a variety of ways, as by spot welding, riveting or integral formation or the like. The clips 21 form gripping members which are adapted to move back to receive and engage the guy strand 1 upon direct pressure downward on the guard 17. Thus after or before the eye 19 is bolted to the clamp 5 by the bolt 16 and its nut, the strand 1 is forced between the clips 21 by pushing the guard against the strand 1. Figs. 2, 3 and 4 show the strand thus positioned between the clips 21.

The clips 21 are shaped to first, provide a relatively wide path for guiding the strand 1 therebetween, and second, to hold the strand after the clips have been moved back to allow the entry of the strand. The tips 23 of the clips 21 serve to do the initial guiding of the strand 1, and the curved portions 25 form a seat to securely hold the strand. It is to be understood, however, that the clips 21 may be formed in any suitable shape.

The seating portions 25 are preferably spaced from the body portion 18 to prevent the guy strand 1 from touching the body portion. Such a contact might cause rattling or other disadvantageous results.

Referring now to the modification shown in Figs. 5 and 6, the clips 21 rather than being bolted, riveted or otherwise secured to the body portion 18 are formed integrally therewith and in staggered relationship along the top of the arch of the body portion 18. As shown in Fig. 5, each clip 21 is formed by striking out a tab from the top of the arch (as shown at numeral 22) and forming it to assume the general shape shown in Fig. 6 with the portions 23 and 25 arranged as described in connection with Fig. 3. The tabs are arranged along the body portion 18 so that, as shown in Fig. 6, an end view of the guard is similar to an end elevation of the guard as shown in Fig. 3. These tabs or clips 21 may be staggered throughout the length of the body portions 18 thereby providing a clamping surface between the body portion 18 and the strand 1 throughout the length of the guard.

If, however, only two of the clips 21 are formed, in the staggered relationship, as shown, an alternative method of installing the guard 1'7 is provided. The body portion 18 may be held at an angle to the strand 1 and the strand positioned between the clips 21, and then rotated to align the body portion 18 and the strand 1 to bring the eye 19 in position for final bolting to the clamp 5 by the bolt 16. By this procedure the clips 21 receive the strand 1 in the portions 25. The guard 17 may, however, first be partially bolted to the clamp 5 by the bolt 16 at the eye portion 19 and then further secured to the strand 1 by downward pressure which forces the strand 1 between the staggered clips 21. This latter method is used if there are more than two clips.

lh'om the above description, it will be seen that a guard has been provided for the guy wire 1, which is firmly held on the guy wire and provided against any rotation or rattling on the wire. Furthermore, only one bolting operation is required to secure the guard against movement, rotational or longitudinal, and then only a pressing operation to force the guard into its final position on the strand 1.

It is to be understood that the term guy strand in the present specification and claims is inclusive of strands adapted to function for all purposes and includes wire, rope and cable.

In view of the above, it will be seen tha u the several objects of the invention are achieved and other advantageous results attained.

As many changes could be made in carrying out the above constructions without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

1. A guy guard comprising a longitudinal, arched body portion having means formed on one end thereof adapted to be bolted to a clamp of a guy strand, and gripping means formed near the other end of said body portion, said gripping means comprising two staggered holding members within said body portion and extending from said body portion, said members being adapted to freely receive said strand when said body is angularly disposed thereto, and to engage said strand when said body portion is angularly turned to substantially align with said strand.

2. A guy guard comprising a longitudinal, arched body portion having means formed on one end thereof adapted to be bolted to a clamp of a guy strand, and gripping means formed near the other end of said body portion, said gripping means comprising two staggered holding members within said body portion and extending from said body portion, said members being adapted to freely receive said strand when said body is angularly disposed thereto, and to engage said strand when said body portion is angularly turned CLAUD L. MATTHEWS.

1 Aux) 

